Forge World - Environment
"You were born in the shadow of the Omnissiah and all your life you have been surrounded with the great wonders and dire terrors of the Machine God’s arts. Ever since you were born you have been weighed, measured, codified and tested so that your masters might find your place in the great pattern; an unforgiving process that has fitted you well for survival and supremacy.” — Explorator Archmagos Thule, address prior to the Helstrom Pursuit. The domains of the Adeptus Mechanicus are many, from the ceaseless industry of the iron realms of the forge worlds, to labyrinthine orbitals and distant research outposts, to the nomadic and self-contained void caravans of the explorator fleets. They are an empire within and empire, distinct and yet interwoven with the fabric of the Imperium. Their masters are as ancient, wise, mysterious and cold as the machineries they tend. Life on a Forge World Forge worlds are the beating iron heart of the Imperium and the sovereign domains of the Priesthood of Mars. They are given over to the demands of vast industrialisation and eternally hungry for new resources to consume. A forge world’s wheels never cease to turn and day-in-day-out for millennia, the reactors blaze and the foundries thunder, turning out refined materials and high technology to meet the Imperium’s unending needs. A forge world is also far more than the sum of its continentspanning manufactorums; each is blessed with a higher level of technological advancement than the wider Imperium as a whole, and many arcane and strange wonders are common currency in their baroque labyrinths of ferrocrete and steel. They are also home to vast repositories of data, knowledge and lore, with as much as a third of any given forge world’s entire infrastructure consisting of endless scriptoriums, mimetic vaults and knowledge dumps, tended in perpetuity by mindless drones and generations of archive adepts. A forge world’s undisputed masters are the Magos and Adepts of the Cult Mechanicus who rule with harsh precision and cold logic. To them the human population of their domains are little more than cogs and gears in the great machine, resources to be measured, graded and used to fit their worth. At their direction, the bulk of a forge world’s human population is utilised as a skilled and trained labour force, while the brightest and best are inducted to the Adeptus Mechanicus itself. The more militant are chosen for the Skitarii Tech-Guard. Those deemed unworthy or irredeemable are fated to be “recycled” into servitor components, and indeed, servitors and drones often far outnumber a forge world’s freewilled population. Such is the price of failure. Despite their mechanistic society and ceaseless industry, the life for the average citizen on a forge world is little harsher than on most hive worlds. Each forge world, regardless of its rigidly enforced order and the cold reason of its masters, is still home to very human ambition and apathy, vice and virtue. Indeed, the Mechanicus, with their cogitator-enhanced minds and iron logic, are still prone to factionalism and schism, often for reasons and causes quite incomprehensible to outsiders. Rivalries and feuds simmer betweens sects and individual Magos, each with their own devices and desires. By far the largest and most important Mechanicus domains are the great forge worlds, such as the Lathe worlds of Calixis. This character Origin also covers those born and raised on the city-sized orbital stations, Mechanicus administered colonies (often called demesnes), research outposts and even in the forces of the restless explorator fleets, for the rites, rituals and beliefs of the Omnissiah also govern these places. Forge Born PCs Forge worlds are not environments that reward, let alone tolerate, weakness in body or in mind. To have survived and prospered enough to leave a forge world’s rigid society, your character must possess a great deal of drive, ambition and good fortune, or at the very least be bloody-minded and ruthless enough to have endured. You find yourself in a wider Imperial society that is at once familiar and strangely alien to you, where fools baulk in superstition at technology without understanding its spiritual mysteries and purity of essence. Nor do they seem to understand mankind’s survival demands power and, as the Forge World Characteristics Forge World Characteristics(Dark Heresy 2) CharaCteristiC modifiers + Intelligence, + Toughness, – Fellowship fate threshold 3 (Emperor’s Blessing 8+) home World bonus Omnissiah’s Chosen: A forge world character starts with either the Technical Knock or Weapon-Tech talent. home World aPtitude Intelligence Wounds A forge world character starts with 8+1d5 wounds. reCommended baCkgrounds Adeptus Administratum, Adeptus Arbites, Adeptus Mechanicus, Imperial Guard Dark Heresy 2 ends 'Forge W'orld Skills Common Lore (Tech) (Int) and Common Lore (Machine Cult) (Int) are Basic Skills for you. Forge World Traits The children of the Omnissiah’s domains gain the following Traits. Record all of these on your character sheet: Fit For Purpose A forge world inhabitant is repeatedly tested, channelled and trained from birth for their chosen station and role in life. Weakness is not tolerated and failure met with painful incentives to do better. Even those who follow a rogue’s path must strive to be better than their peers to survive. Effect: Depending on your chosen Career, increase your Characteristic by +3: Adept—Intelligence, Assassin—Agility, Guardsman—Ballistic Skill, Scum—Perception, or Tech-Priest—Willpower. Stranger to the Cult Although forge world born citizens know that the Emperor is their god and saviour, they see the Imperial Creed through the lens of Cult Mechanicus doctrine. As a result, they can be surprisingly—and sometimes dangerously—ignorant of the common teachings and practices of the Ecclesiarchy, often failing to offer its clerics the level of deference they expect. Effect: Forge world characters take a –10 penalty on Tests involving knowledge of the Imperial Creed, and a –5 penalty on Fellowship Tests to interact with members of the Ecclesiarchy in formal settings. Credo Omnissiah Rather than being fully indoctrinated into the Imperial Cult, even the lowliest member of a forge world’s society is brought up to venerate the spirits of the machine and to know and trust the basic rites of tech-propitiation. Effect: You gain the Technical Knock talent. Starting Wounds Forge world characters start with d5+7 Wounds. Fate Points Roll 1d10 to determine your starting Fate Points. On a 1–5, you begin with 1 Fate Point; on a 6–9, you begin 3 fate points. The Past—Point of Origin Although the rites, beliefs and society of the Adeptus Mechanicus remain remarkably constant, not all characters are born in the same circumstances. Table 1-2: Point of Origin illustrates some possible points of origin and how they might affect your outlook. Table 1–2: Point of Origin Roll Result (D100) 01–30 Greater Forge World: Your character was raised in the shadows of one of the vast and powerful greater forges, such as the Lathe worlds of Calixis. You have felt the earth shake with the footfalls of Titans and basked in the fire-glow of kilometre-wide molten metal crucibles. Few spectacles impress you and the superiority of the Machine God is as evident in your mind as it is absolute. Gain Trade(Armourer or Technomat OR Wright) and +3 Intelligence OR 3+ Strength 31–47 Minor Forge World: You were born and trained on a minor forge world, either one yet to gain its majority or one where conditions were either particularly adverse or threatened. Hard experience has taught you the value of duty, unity and obedience and that the work of many is far harder to destroy than the work of one. Gain Trade(Armourer OR Technomat) and +3 Intelligence OR 3+ Strength 48–61 Orbital: You hail from one of the Mechanicus’s city-sized orbital stations and are accustomed to the miracles of contragravity, power fields and the mysteries of circuit and plasma. Each orbital serves a specialised task such as weaponsmithing or crystal promulgation, and you value purity of purpose and mastery of skill above all else. 62–74 Demesne: A child of one of the Mechanicus’s dominion worlds, you were singled-out and selected from your people at an early age for your potential and launched upon the path the Omnissiah has chosen for you. You have faith in your destiny and ability to overcome whatever is set against you; the weak perish and the superior survive. +5 to one characteristic or 1 known skill(of your choice) 75–89 Research Outpost: You spent your formative years serving on an isolated outpost scattered amongst the cold and unforgiving stars. You value single-minded pursuit of a goal above other considerations and you see dependence on the company of others as a weakness. Gains the skill Tech-Use(Known) and Tech-Use(Trained) or Security(Known) and Security(Trained) 90–00 Explorator Fleet: Assigned at a young age to the forces of an Explorator Magos, you have travelled to distant and unknown stars and set foot upon worlds aeons dead. You have seen wonders and horrors few even suspect exist. Your encounters have left you craving always to know more, witness more and rip open the galaxy’s secrets, one xenos body at a time if need be. Gain one Forbidden Lore with Known and Trained of your choice Category:Player Character Homeworlds